Blanchett juggles family demands, misses her Pig but is happy to be blue

Jenny Cooney Carrillo

New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) in a scene from Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.

After ending her seven-week run in the psychodrama The Maids at Sydney Theatre last month, Cate Blanchett went directly to New York for the premiere of her Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine. But there was one hitch.

''The saddest thing was that in order to be there, I missed my son playing the title role of the Pig in his class play of Pig Pig,'' Blanchett says a few days after the premiere.

She's now in Beverly Hills, California, wrapping up interviews and a red-carpet stop at the Los Angeles premiere of the drama before heading home to Sydney. But the Oscar winner mentions the family conflict not to emphasise her ''soccer mum'' status but simply to acknowledge the reality. Life as one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood, a mother of three rambunctious boys (aged five, nine and 11) and wife of Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Andrew Upton has a lot of moving parts that require careful choreography.

Cate Blanchett at the premiere of Blue Jasmine. Photo: Sahlan Hayes

''My first question is who's directing it, and my second is does it happen over the school holidays?'' Blanchett, 44, says. ''Obviously I've been running the [theatre] company with Andrew, so I haven't been making films, but that hasn't felt like a sacrifice because I've had the most amazing five years and been on stage and working with the most incredible people.

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''But to uproot everybody is a big thing, particularly since one's going to high school next year, and sometimes you have to say no to things because of what's going on in your family life.''

Blanchett is mesmerising in Allen's new film as Jasmine, an elegant New York socialite whose life has fallen apart, forcing her to move in with her sister (Sally Hawkins) in a modest flat in San Francisco. There's early Oscar buzz for her portrayal of an emotionally fragile woman having a nervous breakdown.

The actor was at home in Sydney last year when she received a phone call from Woody Allen asking her to read his script. ''I'm a drooling fan and I'd actually given up hope of working with Woody and just thought maybe he's not interested,'' she says.

But Allen was also a fan. ''She was my first choice,'' he says. ''I'd never seen her live on stage but I saw her in [Martin] Scorsese's movie The Aviator, where she won the Academy Award playing Katharine Hepburn, and Elizabeth and Hanna and The Talented Mr Ripley. And she's a startling actress so I knew she'd make me look good.''

Catherine Elise Blanchett was born in Melbourne to June, a school teacher, and Robert, a Texas-born navy seaman who stayed in Australia after his ship broke down, and wound up with a career in advertising. When Blanchett was 10, he died of a heart attack.

''My father died at a very early age and so my mother did it very tough,'' she says. ''She had to work and so I was raised by her and my grandmother and I suppose that financial struggle was something that I knew acutely; what that meant and the panic of, 'Gosh, will …?'''

She starts the sentence over, choosing her words carefully. ''I don't want to expose my mother but I will say she's an extraordinary woman and it was very important to her to give us a good education, even if she had to put herself into debt to do it.''

Blanchett studied art history and economics at the University of Melbourne before auditioning for a spot at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art and attending from 1990-92. She modestly attributes her immediate success more to luck than talent.

''My first major job out of the gate was at the Sydney Theatre Company working with Geoffrey Rush on a David Mamet play [Oleanna].''

''And I find myself now in this position of having been co-artistic director and CEO of the Sydney Theatre Company and about to make a film [Blackbird] with David Mamet, so I've been very lucky.''

Would she like more actors in the Blanchett-Upton family? ''If I was a lawyer or a doctor, it would be a hope that your children would go into the family business, but I know so many actors who think, 'Please, god, let them not be an actor!'''